


26 Exhibits of Meeting, Hating and Interacting With Your Roommate

by orsumfenix



Category: The Lorien Legacies - All Media Types, The Lorien Legacies - Pittacus Lore
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, F/F, F/M, M/M, Probably ooc, everyone's an asshole, language warning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-14
Updated: 2015-06-14
Packaged: 2018-04-04 10:17:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4133766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orsumfenix/pseuds/orsumfenix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stanley Worthington feels as though life is conspiring against him. His dad seems to think that he needs to be sent to some rich school, he’s got three roommates that are all varying degrees of weird and he can’t figure out whether he’s supposed to love or hate Joseph, one of said roommates. At least Joseph seems to be the same around him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote the first three chapters almost two years ago and felt like a badass by swearing and everyone is ooc and five's legacy wasn't out yet so "cody" wasn't a thing he's called fred in this i'm so sorry
> 
> and also everyone's an asshole [besides precious bby Marina]

**A. In Which Stanley Meets Joseph (And Immediately Hates Him)**

* * *

 

 

The new school is big, to say in the least. It towers above him, shadowing him, making him feel small and insignificant (not that he’d tell anybody that). To be honest, it’s rather intimidating, but he’s never been one to turn down a challenge.

So Stanley Worthington squares his shoulders, raises his head slightly and walks inside.

The reception itself is plain and neat, nothing really that special about it, except for a poster warning the students that smoking is strictly prohibited (but it clearly fails, seeing as he’s already seen some students from here smoking just outside the gates).

Past the glass doors leading out into the courtyard, he can see the campus bustling with activity, students all rushing about to their first class or calmly strolling with their mates around the square area and occasionally kicking a stone.

(He can see one couple eating each other’s faces off in one corner, where they probably think that no one can see them, but he decides to just shrug it off and focus on getting signed in first.)

Stanley approaches the receptionist. She’s a smallish woman, with dark brown hair in a bob and a piercing in her nose. She’s surprisingly young, only about twenty something – she looks like she should be in college, not the receptionist at a boarding school.

“Can I help you?” she asks, much more pleasant than the receptionist at his old school.

“Hi,” he greets, grinning widely, making sure to show all of his teeth. Time to turn on the charm. “I’m Stanley Worthington. I’m a new student here. And I was maybe hoping that a pretty lady like you could help me out.”

The receptionist doesn’t look impressed – she rolls her eyes, scanning him and taking in every detail before typing something into the computer in front of her.

“You pack light,” is her only comment, causing him to examine the little rucksack he’s carrying, with all his electronics in, before glancing outside to where the rest of his things are currently being unloaded from his big truck.

“What, this?” He cocks an eyebrow at her, smiling even more seductively. “Nah, this is just the start of it. My dad’s like, rich, and he’s paid a load of guys to carry my stuff in for me.” He gestures to the truck with his head, just as the first of his dad’s ‘servants’ (yes, his dad has maids, butlers and servants) bring in some of his things.

The receptionist still doesn’t look impressed – she just mutters something under her breath about “another rich dickhead” before collecting a sheet she’s printed off and handing it to him with a fake smile.

“This is your timetable,” she informs with fake cheeriness (and even _he_ can see through that false grin). Then she hands him a key. “This is your dorm key. You’re rooming with three other guys, so try to be nice. You’re in the Loric Wing, and your dorm number is Ten.”

Stanley stands there awkwardly for a few seconds, trying to think of a good pickup line that would probably work on a girl like her, before she looks up, notices him still there and smiles sweetly (and falsely).

“Well,” she prompts. “What are you waiting for?”

He may be the biggest flirt that he’s ever heard of, but he knows rejection when faced with it.

So he trudges off and tries to find his dorm, with all of his servants following him.

* * *

His room is big (thank god), with four beds evenly spaced apart. The three furthest from the door all have distinctive duvets covering them (one relatively neat, the furthest one possibly the neatest possible, and the closest the messiest he’s ever seen). By default, he supposes that makes the one by the door his, which isn’t too great, but there you go.

All his servants immediately descend upon his new bed, putting all his clothes (neatly placed on coat hangers, freshly washed and smelling of lavender) in the wardrobe beside it, all his shoes (black, posh, polished) in the bottom, all his most prized possessions (removed from his rucksack with care) in and on the little bedside table on the other side.

Stanley patiently waits for them to finish.

(He has a moment in which he wonders whether the servants are worried about one of the other boys stealing something, before realising that he’s no longer going to that scruffy old school and is now at a nice, rich, posh boarding school where it’s all people with as much money at their disposal as him who have no need to steal anything.)

When they finish, he lets them go before sitting on his new bed (with the duvet smelling like lemons and the sheets stiff with newness), wondering where the other people staying here are.

Probably at lessons. He starts his tomorrow, so he has a whole day to kill at this posh new place.

Well, time to explore, then.

Stanley stands up and goes to the open the door, but before he can reach the handle he hears the sound of someone scrabbling with a key (probably trying to unlock an already unlocked door) and it swings open, almost whacking him in the face.

As it is, he scrambles backwards (in a totally manly way) and ends up awkwardly falling onto his bum on the cold wooden floor. It’s completely embarrassing, and he’s sure that he currently looks like a complete and utter idiot, but his dad would kick off if he somehow managed to get a broken nose on his first day.

“Holy shit, dude, you alright?” says the voice of whatever bastard opened the door. He’s still staring at the floor, trying to ignore the gaze of whoever completely humiliated him, as the footsteps approach. When he finally musters up the courage to look up, he sees himself staring into possibly the greenest eyes he’s ever seen. It then dawns on him that the dude is looking cautious, apprehensive… worried. “I didn’t… hit you, did I?”

Stanley just shakes his head, not daring himself to speak in case his voice comes out all squeaky and high-pitched instead of deep masculine (which, knowing his luck, it probably would). When he finally musters the courage, the mystery guy still kneeling down and waiting for him to say something, so clears his throat loudly and brings himself to tear his own eyes away from those brilliant green ones.

“I’m fine,” he grumbles, sitting up, trying to somehow regain his dignity. “You didn’t hit me. I just…” He trails off, wondering how to try and word it without sounding like a complete idiot.

The guy grins crookedly.

“I scared you and you fell,” he finishes simply, amusement shining in his eyes. “You landed on the floor on your ass.”

And that is when Stanley decides that this guy, whoever he is, is an asshole.

“Well,” he huffs as stands up, dusting his front of even though he really doesn’t need to (he just wants to seem unperturbed), and watching as the other guy rises with him. “You shouldn’t have flung the door open like that. Do the words ‘health hazard’ mean anything to you?”

The guy cocks an eyebrow, moving towards the next bed along, the really messy one.

“You know what? I take it back. I hope I _did_ hit you.”

Stanley, for some reason, finds this absolutely _hilarious_ , and proceeds to hoot with laughter, drawing the attention of another boy passing by the open door, a skinny nerdy guy, who shoots him a weird look before hurrying along to wherever he’s heading.

He calms down slightly, ignoring his roommate’s look (that mirrors the other kid’s) and wanders back over to his own bed, lying back and staring at the ceiling.

The other guy is lying on his own bed, messing about on his phone, seemingly not noticing anything else, so Stanley takes the opportunity to study him. The guy is quite tall, albeit not Stanley-tall (he left his old school the tallest guy there), but tall nonetheless. He’s kind of thin, but toned, and he _does_ have muscles (again, not as big as Stanley’s). His hair is kind of long (but not Stanley-long), dark, curly, falling to his shoulders. His most amazing, feature, though, is his eyes, which are (admittedly a lot nicer than his ones) a bright green. No doubt if he were to turn the lights off and leave them in the dark then those eyes would glow in the dark.

He supposes that this guy could be considered attractive.

The asshole notices him staring, and cocks one of his eyebrows again (he seems to do that a lot).

“See something you like?” he says teasingly, grinning in a slightly smug way before going back to his phone.

Stanley goes red at the statement (though he will later pretend that he didn’t), and immediately looks away, instead focusing his gaze on the open door just as another guy walks through.

This guy immediately screams ‘player’, with those pretty blue surfer’s eyes and windswept blonde hair and just-the-right-amount-of-tanned skin. He’s sure he’s seen a picture or something of this guy somewhere – probably has, actually. There’s got to be some kids of famous people here, and it wouldn’t surprise him if some have had their own picture publicised.

After all, he’s the kid of a millionaire, who, despite knowing that Stanley is set for life, will never have any problems with money, has decided to send him off to school on the grounds that ‘education is important’.

Important his ass.

Anyway, this guy looks at him, grins widely, walks over and offers his hand to shake.

“It’s nice to meet you,” he greets, the ‘gentleman’ vibes overtaking the ‘player’ ones. “I’m John Smith – please don’t comment on how cliché that name is – and you are…?”

“Stanley,” he replies, deciding that this guy is alright. “Worthington.”

“Worthington?” says a voice from the other bed, drawing both his and John’s attention. “Like, Sandor Worthington?”

John looks back to him, and now both of his new roommates are simply staring and waiting for an answer.

“Yup,” he informs, popping the ‘p’. “He’s my dad.”

John and the dick both stare at him.

“Wow,” John – which he’s already dubbed ‘Johnny’ – remarks, whistling. “You must be like, loaded.”

The dick snorts, finally locking his phone and slipping it in his pocket.

“Like you can talk, _Henri Smith’s_ son.”

“Wait.” Stanley stares at him. “Your dad is Henri Smith? As in, the actor Henri Smith?”

The asshole rolls his eyes.

“What other famous Henri Smith’s do you know?” he comments, swinging his legs over the side of his bed and walking over to Johnny. He claps him on the back as he walks past, earning a glare from the blonde. “Johnny here is _seriously_ rich.”

(So the guy calls him Johnny, too. He can live with that. He’ll just change it to Johnny-boy instead.)

“Shut up,” Johnny-boy says good-naturedly. “Like you aren’t rolling in it, too.”

The idiot rolls his eyes again.

“Whatever. I’m gonna go now, ‘cos you’re getting boring.”

“You going to see Marina?” the blonde teases, grin stretching from ear to ear. “You’ve been going on a lot of dates with her recently. When are you going to ask her out?”

The guy has gone bright red. Serves him right. Bastard.

“I _told_ you,” the guy stresses, rolling his eyes so hard Stanley’s surprised that they don’t pop out. “Me and Marina are _just_ friends.” But he’s gone bright red, and people don’t usually flush at the mention of going out with ‘just a friend’.

“Yeah, sure. Keep telling yourself that.”

Then the mystery roommate walks out of the door. Both Stanley and Johnny’s eyes follow him out, before both drifting back to meet each other.

“So,” Johnny-boy says in a conversational tone. “You met Joseph, then?”

“Huh,” is Stanley’s only comment as he picks his phone up from the bedside drawer and begins to browse through his games. “So that’s his name.”

John raises his eyebrows, but says nothing, walking towards the bed that’s neat, but not obsessively so, and plonking himself comfortably down.

Stanley simply sits about, messing about on his phone, and wonders why the mention of this ‘Marina’ chick bothers him so much.


	2. B In Which Stanley Meets Marina (And Wonders Whether She Loves Joseph)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dear sweet Marina

**B In Which Stanley Meets Marina (And Wonders Whether She Loves Joseph)**

* * *

 

The other roommate, the one with the freakishly tidy bed, doesn’t appear until he’s going to bed that night.

Stanley has spent the rest of the day either on his phone, talking to Johnny, wandering around the campus (and discovering that if the kids pay the teachers, they get to bunk off without it being reported to their parents) and watching the TV he got his dad to let him bring.

Johnny hung around the dorm for a while, before some chick called Sarah texted him and he went shooting off. ‘Joseph’ (or, as Stanley prefers, the dick) hasn’t made another appearance, probably with that Marina bird. Stanley, to be honest, is glad. He doesn’t know why he hates him so much, he just does.

And if Stanley Worthington hates someone, they know about it pretty soon.

Neither Johnny-boy or Joseph mentioned the other guy rooming with them, so Stanley, naturally has no clue what he’s like. He could be really awesome, but he could be really nerdy. He could be a dickhead, like Joseph, or he could be a gentleman, like Johnny.

When the guy actually appears, it’s a bit of a disappointment.

Stanley is tired (he got up _really_ early that morning) and, despite his vow not to do so, decides to go to bed early, at seven (which is the earliest he’s _ever_ slept). Just as he’s settling down, the door opens and the other guy walks in.

The lights are still on, so Stanley can get a good look at him. He’s nothing special – just your average, porky, brown-haired nerd. Everyone’s meant to go back to their dorms at seven-thirty, though he can already tell that his other two roommates will be back later (so would Stanley, if he had anywhere better to be), but this guy seems like a rule-follower. That hair – an actual _buzz-cut_ – is enough to show him that.

The guy doesn’t pay him any mind; just walks past, cleans his teeth and gets changed in the bathroom (or, at least, Stanley _assumes_ he does), before heading over to the super neat bed and settling in under there.

The covers are still completely neat even while he’s under.

What a freak.

Stanley, himself, can’t get to sleep. It’s like, he’ll be exhausted all day, and when he finally goes to bed, he’s more awake than he’s ever been. And it pisses him off.

Johnny comes in at about nine, when the lights are now turned off, sneaking through the door and trying to be quiet (but epically failing). He’s probably been with ‘Sarah’ the entire time. Stanley’s already rethinking his player perspective of John, who, from what he heard off the guy himself before, seems pretty dedicated to this one girl.

Eventually his breathing, too, evens out, joining the other boy’s.

Joseph (still ‘the dick’ mentally) comes in bang on midnight (Stanley only knows this because he’s got a clock next to him that he’s staring at), not even _trying_ to be quiet like John and making tons of noise wherever he goes. Remarkably, by some great feat, the roommate-he-does-not-yet-know-the-name-of stays asleep through Joseph stomping all about the place. Johnny-boy is briefly disturbed, muttering something about how he really should try to be quieter, before he miraculously drifts back off.

Stanley hears a _thump_ , followed by a grunt of pain.

“Shit,” he hears Joseph hiss. Idiot probably walked into something. It wouldn’t surprise him in the slightest.

Then Joseph proceeds to be as loud as he possibly can while climbing into bed, rustling the covers as he gets in and still hissing muffled curses. Stanley smirks from he’s lying in his own bed.

Then Joseph settles down and goes to sleep as well, leaving Stanley to awkwardly lie in bed for a little while longer.

He finally gets to sleep at quarter to three in the morning.

* * *

Stanley is woken up in the morning at about quarter past seven, and when he blinks his blurry eyes and looks up he catches sight of shining green eyes and dark curly hair and grimaces. Typical.

“Hey dude,” Joseph whispers, still shaking him even though he’s already awake. “It’s time to get up. Your first lesson’s in an hour. Geography.”

“How do you…?” he begins, yawning, before stopping, sitting up and glaring at him. “Have you been looking through my stuff?” He knows for a fact that he left his timetable in his top drawer _before_ Joseph came in.

The guy himself doesn’t look guilty in the slightest. He simply shrugs and grins, standing up properly.

“Guilty as charged,” he quips. Then he tilts his head, smile reflecting in his eyes. “But, admit it. If I hadn’t woken up, you probably would have slept for like, another two hours and you would have missed it.”

That’s true actually. But… wait. Wouldn’t one of the other two wake him up?

Stanley looks around, noticing for the first time that they’re the only two in the room.

“Where’s the others?” he asks, climbing out of bed, not really caring that he’s only wearing pyjama bottoms, revealing his (admittedly toned and muscly) chest. Joseph raises his eyebrows at that, but doesn’t say anything.

“John’s gone to see Sarah, _again_. Fred is… I don’t know, actually. He’s somewhere.”

Fred. So that’s the guy’s name. Something tells Stanley that ‘Fred’ probably wouldn’t have woken him up if it were him in place of Joseph, so that’s _something_ in the latter’s favour.

He still thinks that guy’s a twat, though.

Stanley can’t think of any way to respond to that, so he simply grunts, shrugging a top on from his wardrobe and ignoring Joseph’s look of relief.

“What have you got first?” he asks, then instantly regretting it. Why did he bother asking that? Now it seems like he actually _likes_ the guy, which he most definitely doesn’t.

“Geography. Same as you.”

It takes a moment for the green-eyed boy’s words to properly register, before Stanley whips around and gawps at him.

“Wait,” he says, wondering if he’s worked this out right. “You’re not in my class, are you?”

Joseph doesn’t deny it – just smirks and folds his arms.

“You got a problem with that? I’d have thought you’d be overjoyed.”

Stanley can’t help it. He groans. First this guy makes him feel like an idiot, then he turns out to just plain be a twat, then he disturbs his trying-to-get-to-sleep, then he wakes him up and acts all smug, and, as if all that isn’t enough, now the dickhead’s in his _class_.

And, with his luck, Joseph will probably end up sitting next to him.

Great. Just great.

The other guy raises an eyebrow.

“You find out I’m in your class then groan and pull a face. I think I might be offended.” His smile’s dropped, and all carelessness has disappeared from the very way he holds himself, but Stanley can see amusement in his eyes, and knows that he’s joking.

“Doesn’t everyone groan when they find out that they’re in the same class as you?”

Joseph fakes mock offence, widening his eyes and flicking his hair in an impression of a bitch.

“Oh no you _did_ -n’t!” he exclaims, pretending to adjust his hair and pouts his lips. It’s actually quite funny, and somehow, Stanley finds himself howling with laughter.

Joseph returns to his usual way of standing, normal way of grinning coming back onto his face.

“You should get ready. Come find me about five minutes before class and I’ll show you where it is. But for now, _I’m_ going to go hang out with Marina.”

The other boy disappears out of the room, and Stanley tries not be offended that the guy just basically ditched him for his girlfriend, sorry, ‘friend’. It’s not like he cares. The guy’s an asshole, anyway.

* * *

 

Finding Joseph proves a harder task than it would first seem. Stanley naturally assumed that he’d be with ‘Marina’ in the courtyard or something, where he noticed other couples seem to hang out, but when he gets there it’s deserted of all life, apart from another couple – a pretty blonde girl chatting with a pale geeky boy. Not the types you’d expect to hang out together, but there you go.

When he walks in the cafeteria, where he expects everyone to be, it’s only the popular people, including Johnny-boy snogging another blonde beauty, who he assumes is Sarah. But there’s no sign of Joseph.

“Hey Johnny,” he calls, approaching said roommate, drawing the attention of all the popular. Some of the guys shoot him dirty looks, some of the chicks shoot him even dirtier ones and some toss their hair and smile flirtingly at him. Johnny-boy pulls away from his bird and turns to look at Stanley, raising an eyebrow as if to say ‘this better be good’. “You know where Joseph is?”

Johnny shakes his head, and Stanley notices that his hair is all mussed up. If he turned up to class like that, especially with his rumpled clothes, at his old school, he would never hear the end of it.

“You know where…” He tries to recall the name of his teacher. “Mr Lore’s Geography is?”

John smiles apologetically.

“Sorry, but no. I don’t have him. Joseph might be on the roof, though, thinking about it.”

When John’s words finally register, Stanley frowns in confusion.

“The roof?” he asks, but Johnny has gone back to snogging the chick, so he decides it would be best to leave.

Walking around for a few more minutes proves aimless, and his class is about to start. It’s not like he’s ever cared about being on time, but this is a new school and no doubt if he’s late to his first class then his dad will be told and… He just doesn’t want that to happen.

When looking up casually near the building housing his dorm, he catches sight of two figures sitting on the roof. He can’t see very well from the sunlight, but one looks distinctly feminine, and one is suspiciously familiar, with curly hair that he can only just make out. So John was right.

Son of a bitch.

* * *

Getting up there takes some careful manoeuvring, and he has to awkwardly attempt to use the drainpipe (he’s honestly surprised that it doesn’t snap) and use little gaps in the brickwork. The only reason he can actually climb to the top is because he’s the proud rock-climbing champion at his local centre.

When he finally reaches the roof, he hears the bell go at the bottom, followed by the sound of footsteps as people rush to reach their destination.

“Joseph!” he calls as he walks up to the couple, who are sitting and chatting, seemingly unaware of the fact that their classes are about to start. Both look over to him, and it dawns on him that this girl is unbelievably pretty and extremely unaware of it, if by the way she’s casually dressed is anything to go by. Stanley spreads his arms. “What are you doing up here?”

“Stanley?” Joseph squints and stands up, the girl he assumes is Marina following suite. “How did you get up from there? The ladder’s round the other side.”

Well, shit. He could have been up there in seconds if he’d known that earlier.

“Lesson’s about to start,” he informs, reaching the two, choosing not to answer that question and sound like an idiot. “And I don’t know where it is.”

“Shit, is it?” Joseph asks, eyes wide. He mutters a curse under his breath. “I didn’t know we’d been up here that long.” Then he turns to the girl. “Do you reckon if I paid Mr Lore he wouldn’t tell?”

The girl shakes her head.

“Adam tried that, remember?” she reminds, before glancing at Stanley. “Aren’t you going to introduce me?”

“Oh, yeah, sorry.” Joseph holds a hand out to him. “This is Stanley Worthington, my new roommate, Sandor Worthington’s son. Stanley, this is Marina Christiano, her mother’s a successful businesswoman.”

A cloud covers Marina’s face at the mention of her mother, but she forces a smile and shakes Stanley’s hand.

“So you’re _that_ Worthington,” she comments, releasing her hand from his and raking a hand through her hair. “Well, good luck. If you’ve got Mr Lore, you’ve got to be on your best behaviour, otherwise you’ll end up with loads of detentions, like Joseph here.” She rolls her eyes. “He thinks he’s such a rebel.”

“Hey!” Joseph exclaims in mock-anger. Marina smiles genuinely this time, and it’s not hard for Stanley to see that she has a huge crush on him. But whether the feelings are returned or not he can’t tell. Like Joseph said, he could view them as just friends.

(Or he might not, but Stanley really isn’t in the mood for playing a guessing game.)

“Anyway, you’d better get going,” Marina says, pushing Joseph towards Stanley. “If you miss Mr Lore’s class, he’ll _kill_ you, and I’ll be the one left to pick up the pieces. So _go_.”

Joseph smiles and laughs, but turns to Stanley.

“Come on, we’d better run. You don’t want to die on your first day here.”

Stanley follows, nodding to Marina who stands on the roof watching them, and wonders if her feelings towards Joseph stretch to more than just a crush.


	3. C. In Which Stanley Has A Lesson With Joseph (And Somehow Finds Himself Liking The Guy)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> don't ask me why pittacus lore is an asshole teacher
> 
> please don't

**C In Which Stanley Has A Lesson With Joseph (And Somehow Finds Himself Liking The Guy)**

* * *

 

“And why are you late?” the teacher, who he assumes is Mr Lore, asks them with a murderous look in his eyes. Joseph grins widely, still panting from running all the way there.

“Aren’t you glad that we’re here?” he asks innocently, still smiling his face off. Stanley rolls his eyes and steps forward, not out of breath at all (because he’s awesome in that way).

“I’m new,” he begins, ignoring the sarcastic ‘well no’ coming from Joseph behind him. “And Joseph here is my very pleasant roommate, and he was kindly showing me around the school, and we were all the way on the other end of campus when the bell went, and we did our very best to get here on time, so pretty please don’t give us a detention.” He’s put his sweetest voice on, and he blinks with owlish eyes, still ignoring Joseph’s snickers as he comes to stand next to him.

Mr Lore turns to Joseph.

“Joseph, is that true?” he asks, adjusting his thick black glasses perched on his nose. Said boy nods, mouth tugging as he tries not to laugh.

“It’s completely true, sir,” he says, still looking as if he’s trying to eat a mouse. “Every word of it.”

Mr Lore doesn’t look impressed, but he nods anyway and gestures towards the back.

“Joseph, please take your seat,” he orders, and Joseph nods, grins happily and bounces towards the seat in the back corner. “Mr Worthington – you are Stanley Worthington, correct?” Following Stanley’s nod, Mr Lore points to where Joseph’s sitting. “Mr Worthington, please take a seat next to Joseph.”

Stanley mentally groans – he still dislikes the guy intensely, and only made up that excuse to get himself off the hook. But no doubt he’d get a detention if he refused, so he smiles extremely falsely and goes to sit next to Joseph, who winks at him.

Then the lesson gets properly started.

They’re learning about rivers, which makes Joseph groan loudly. Mr Lore stops talking and raises his eyebrows and asks if there’s anything he’d like to share. Joseph turns red and says no, ignoring the snickers coming from the rest of the class.

Eventually, after a long and boring about dams and their effects on rivers, Mr Lore gets that skinny pale guy that was chatting with the blonde chick – ‘Mr Sutekh’, as he calls him – to hand out some sheets. When he gets to the back he has a bit of a glare-off with Joseph, ‘accidently’ dropping his sheet on the floor and not picking it up. But he smiles politely at Stanley and puts his sheet down on the table in exactly the same way as everyone else.

“Who was that?” he asks once the guy’s out of earshot, wondering why he and Joseph seem to hate each other. The latter’s face screws up with distaste.

“Adam Sutekh. He’s such a posh prick,” he complains as he picks his sheet up from the floor. “And Marina keeps inviting him to sit with us. Olivia I’m okay with, but Adam…” He trails off, wrinkling his nose. “That guy gives me the creeps.”

Stanley frowns, confused.

“If Marina’s friends with him, then why aren’t you?”

Joseph shoots him a look, rolling his eyes.

“Just ‘cos Marina’s friends with him, doesn’t mean I have to be,” he says crisply, starting to pencil in his answers on the sheet (and Stanley knows for a fact that he's got the first three wrong). “’Sides, he hates me, too. Dunno why.” Then he pauses. “Maybe it’s ‘cos he’s jealous.”

To him, that theory really isn’t plausible. If this Adam dude is jealous of anyone, it’s clearly going to be Stanley, seeing as everyone should be. Why not? He’s sexy, attractive, tall, muscly, funny… and really, really cocky.

“Yeah, right,” he snorts. “Why would he be jealous of you?”

Joseph smiles in this proper smug way that makes Stanley want to punch him in the face (he would, but then Mr Lore would probably tell his dad, and then he’d have to explain himself and…)

“Because my family has more money than his,” he informs smugly. “And everyone here is determined to be the richest.”

“Who is your family anyway?” Stanley asks, determined to know just how rich Joseph is, if he has more money than even him (and his father is Sandor Worthington, millionaire, who is a technological genius and one of the richest people on Earth). “Like, would I have heard of them?”

Joseph grins slightly, but it’s not a nice grin. It’s kinda… sad, in a way.

“Oh yeah,” he says quietly, staring at his sheet. “You’ve heard of them.” Then he looks up and smiles widely and cockily. “But I’m not telling you who they are.”

Stanley rolls his eyes at the smug bastard. Can’t just tell him, can he? Immature prick.

The two sit in silence for a few minutes, Stanley not even bothering to fill in his answers (the only thing on the sheet filled in being his full name, which Mr Lore insists on), Joseph doodling on the sheet. Then Mr Lore announces that they have thirty seconds to finish, and Stanley realises that that’s nowhere near enough time to complete in.

“Shit,” he mutters, trying to think, but his mind’s gone blank. Joseph seems to notice his panic and smirks, sliding his own graffitied sheet over.

“Here,” he offers, amusement twinkling in his eyes. “You can copy mine.”

Stanley stares at his sheet for a few moments. While he doesn’t know the actual answers, he’s sure that Joseph has gotten about four on the entire sheet correct, out of thirty, and if he copies his roommate’s answers, he’s going to get a really bad score.

He snatches the sheet from him and desperately copies them down, knowing even as he does it that it isn’t going to end well. He’s never particularly cared before, but his dad has insisted that he get at _least_ decent marks in every subject, despite PE being the only one that he actually _enjoys_ , and when he finds out that he hasn’t even tried, he is in so much trouble.

Joseph whistles beside him, and Stanley glares at him. The former smiles disarmingly, holding his hands up in mock surrender.

“Sorry, but you seem a bit eager there.” He peers over at Stanley’s sheet. “And you _do_ know that copying me is a bad idea, right? I’m not exactly the smartest guy in the world.”

“Yeah, well,” Stanley hurriedly circles some answers (that he’s sure are wrong) for the last two questions. “I could have guessed that.”

Joseph arches his eyebrows in mock-offence, making Stanley stifle a laugh. This dude’s actually quite funny. (But he’s still a dick.)

“Right, time’s up!” Mr Lore calls, walking down the aisle and beginning to collect the sheets in. “And I want your _full_ names at the top,” he says, shooting a look at Joseph, who smiles back innocently.

Stanley passes Mr Lore his and Joseph’s sheets, looking at the name on the sheet to try and figure out what his surname is, and, through that, who his family is, but all that’s written there is **_Joseph R_** , which is completely unhelpful.

Joseph catches him looking and smirks, this time showing his teeth (which are unnaturally white, Stanley notices for the first time).

He opens his mouth to say something, but before he can Mr Lore draws the attention of the class.

“Now, then, I want you all to write _at least_ a page on rivers and the benefits and drawbacks of dams.” The whole class groans, including Stanley, making Mr Lore raise his eyebrows. “Seeing as you’re all so enthusiastic, make it _two_ pages.”

There are grumbles from the class, but they only have half an hour to do it in, so they all get started.

Except for Joseph and Stanley.

“I swear, he just tries to make life difficult on purpose,” Joseph mutters, glaring at said teacher, who is sitting at his desk at the front of the classroom beginning to mark the sheets. “I mean, _two whole pages_ on dams? He’s _got_ to have some sort of issue with this class.”

“Maybe he just hates you?” Stanley suggests, grinning slightly. “I’m sure almost everyone does.”

“Oh ha, ha,” Joseph drawls sarcastically, shooting him a look. “But seriously, though. Everyone at this school is loaded, and none of the other teachers really bother about the work because we don’t need to earn any money when we’re older. Mr Lore’s the only one that cares.”

Stanley grunts because he can think of no better response, starting to write, but Joseph continues.

“And, of course, he especially hates _me_. I don’t know why. Maybe he’s jealous, too.”

Stanley rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, that’s it,” he mutters sarcastically under his breath, ignoring the glare his roommate shoots him.

Joseph looks as though he’s about to protest, but Mr Lore looks up and catches him not doing his look.

“Joseph, would you please like to explain why you aren’t doing your work?” he asks, earning an ‘ooh’ from some of the other people in the class. Joseph flushes bright red as all attention turns to him, shooting a glare at Adam who is snickering.

“I – uh…” He shoots Stanley a desperate look, who raises his hands as if to say ‘you’re on your own’. “I… don’t understand?” he tries, voice coming out kind of high-pitched.

Mr Lore looks unimpressed.

“Nice try, Joseph. Detention.”

Stanley smirks at Joseph’s look of utter offence. The rest of the class gets back to the work, including Stanley (who’s determined to make sure his dad thinks he’s hard working), but Joseph continues to sit there, fuming.

“Mr Lore is such a dick,” he mutters, looking pissed off. “Seriously, I can’t wait to get out of this school.”

Neither can Stanley. That’s why he’s working his hardest. So his dad will see that no, he isn’t thick and yes, he can drop out of school. It’s not as if he really needs to be there, after all.

The two sit in silence for the rest of the lesson, Joseph finally starting his ‘essay’, which turns out to be him writing a couple paragraphs before giving up and making a little grid on his page, before passing it to Stanley with a little nought in the middle. The Worthington himself raises an eyebrow, passing it back with a little cross in the left hand corner.

(They play ten games, five of which Stanley wins, two of which Joseph wins, and three of which are a draw. Yeah, he _so_ won.)

At the end of lesson, when Stanley has written a two-page essay and Joseph a two-paragraph one, the bell goes and everyone begins to pack away. Stanley joins them as they begin to trickle out and hand their books in, probably with actual decent essays.

“Joseph, please see me,” he hears Mr Lore say from his desk.


End file.
